A container inspection device and a container inspection method for inspecting containers are provided. The container inspection device comprises at least one light fixture for illuminating containers at a predetermined inspection instant of time for inspecting the containers, and an electrical line for connecting the at least one light fixture to an electrical energy supply and to a bus system, so that the electrical line serves both to supply the at least one light fixture with electrical energy and to connect with a real time data network.

An optical screening device includes a box and a light source. The box includes two chambers. The first chamber includes an incident passageway made with an exit. The second chamber includes a reflection passageway made with an entrance and an exit. The light source is inserted in the first chamber and adapted for casting incident light onto a first face of an inspected object located out of the box through the exit of the incident passageway so that primary reflected light goes into the second chamber from the first face of the inspected object via the entrance of the reflection passageway and goes out of the second chamber through the exit of the reflection passageway. The entrance of the reflection passageway is made with small width to allow only the primary reflected light to enter the second chamber.

An apparatus (1) for optical inspection of plastic parisons (2) intended to be blow molded to form containers, comprises a conveyor (3) for transporting corresponding parisons (2) along a predetermined path; at an inspection station along the path, each parison (2) is positioned with its axis (208) aligned with a longitudinal reference axis. A stationary camera (7) is provided, with its viewing axis (8) coincident with the longitudinal reference axis, to view the interior of the parison (2); an illuminator (9) is positioned around the viewing axis (8) of the camera (7), to irradiate the outside surface of a mouth end (202) of the parison (2). The camera (7) has a wide-angle lens, to capture an image of an inside surface of the mouth end (202) of the parison (2), representing a screw thread (205) and the identification code (207) of the parison (2), shown in transparency.

A method for quality assessment of a food package in a packaging system, said method comprising capturing a first and second sets of image data depicting the food package at first and second stations, respectively, wherein the first station comprises a first image capturing apparatus, and the second station comprises a second image capturing apparatus, wherein the second station is placed at a different location than the first station of a package transportation path, wherein the second image capturing apparatus is set up differently compared to the first image capturing apparatus, thereby resulting in that the food package is represented differently in the second image data compared to the first image data, and determining features by processing the first and second image data, comparing the features with reference data, and in case of match, transferring a positive quality indication, else, transferring a negative quality indication.

An installation (2) for optically inspecting containers (3) includes a support table (7) for containers, which table has a slide plate (8) on which the bottom of a container stands. The slide plate (8) includes a portion (18) that is movable under the action of an actuator (19) to move the movable portion (18) between a transfer position in which the movable portion is flush with the table, and an inspection position in which the movable portion (18) is set back relative to the slide plate (8). A light source (14) and a light sensor (15) are positioned so that, in the inspection position of the movable portion, the sensor can receive a light beam propagating in an inspection volume (V) in which there is situated at least a portion of the bottom (4) of the container spaced apart from the slide plate.

Systems, methods, devices, and apparatus for detecting sample defects in blood samples processed in automated processing systems are described herein. One aspect describes an automated blood sample processing apparatus having a pre-analytic specimen integrity monitoring device. Another aspect describes devices, systems, and methods for identifying blood components and properties in blood samples. Further aspects relate to systems and methods for setting reference ranges for sample defects and interference in blood samples. Additionally, devices, systems, and methods for identifying defective samples are described.

A distributed device for the detection of a substance is disclosed, comprising: a distributed optical excitation source (21) including a first optical fiber (22) having a plurality of extraction regions (24), each extraction region (24) being adapted to extract part of the light carried by the first optical fiber (22) from said fiber; and a distributed acoustic sensor (25) including a second optical fiber (26).

The present invention provides an inspection device for continuously inspecting supplied containers, in particular bottles, comprising a feed conveying apparatus, which may be embodied to supply containers to the inspection device in succession, and which may include one or more of at least one inspection apparatus, which is embodied to inspect the supplied containers, a discharge conveying apparatus, which is embodied to discharge the inspected containers, and a throughput station for the containers, arranged between the feed conveying apparatus and the discharge conveying apparatus, wherein the throughput station has a transportation apparatus with an individual drive and a plurality of conveying means movable by means of the individual drive in an individual manner and independently from one another, said transportation apparatus being embodied to convey the containers from the feed conveying apparatus to the discharge conveying apparatus.

The invention relates to an installation for observing or illuminating a container (2) section (t) travelling in translation and each having an axis of revolution (S), the installation including optical systems (6.sub.1) translationally guided along a parallel direction an adjustment portion of their respective optical paths, and which have, for containers having a section with a first diameter, their respective work volumes each coincident with a part of said container section having the first diameter, the installation including at least one driving device (15) providing, when the containers have a section with a second diameter different to the first diameter, the movement in synchronous translation of the optical systems along a direction parallel to the adjustment portion of their respective optical paths and as a function of the difference between the first and the second diameter.

A method for sorting and/or treating containers includes the steps of: recording at least one image and/or a video of a plurality of containers by an image recording device, which is configured for recording spatially resolved color images; analyzing the at least one recorded image; identifying the individual containers; assigning an identification information and at least one portion of the recorded image to each of the identified containers; and ascertaining a color information, which is characteristic of an identified container, from the portion of the recorded image.